As the fourth episode of The Rising begins, Neve Kelly (Clara Rugaard) walks through the woods while Maria (Emily Taaffe) listens to voicemail messages from Neve at home. Katie (Robyn Cara) looks at her unread messages calling her names such as tramp and other things. Neve finds some strange rocks with a black substance on one side. After the intro, Max (Cameron Howitt) walks in on Maria listening to Neve’s message over and over. He asks about Katie since she isn’t in her room. Maria suggests she stayed at her nan’s. Max has been thinking about Tom saying Neve is still here, but Maria argues he is just grieving. He can’t see Neve although he really wants to. Max believes he is right since he can feel her there sometimes.

Maria says he won’t feel like this forever. Katie apologizes to Joseph (Solly McLeod) for just turning up like that, but she didn’t know where else to go. He says it is okay before asking what her parents said. Marie just gave her the silent treatment. Her dad just looked disappointed and claimed she let everyone down. Joe says he is sorry for how he acted yesterday. He was scared and took it out on her. She didn’t need to put herself through that because Joseph would’ve protected her. Joseph suggests what happened to them was a mistake. He says there was nothing in it. Katie says he isn’t good enough for her or Neve. Joe asks whether Neve would forgive them. Katie says she wouldn’t.

She remembers that the last thing Neve did for her was wrap that jacket around her because she was cold. Joseph believes they’ll catch whoever killed her even if he has to do it himself. Daniel (Alex Lanipekun) tries to call Katie who doesn’t answer. Maria argues she is lucky that she hasn’t changed the locks. Daniel asks her not to be like that before he tries calling his daughter once again. Neve catches up with Alex (Nenda Neururer) who says she slept well. As for Neve, she doesn’t sleep. She lies there and closes her eyes, but she never sleeps. Neve tells her about Katie leaving as soon as everyone got home although she doesn’t care where she went.

She went to the woods as soon as the sun came up. Neve found nothing so it feels like something is playing with her head. Alex grabs her hands and says she is cold like yesterday although she likes the cold. She encourages Neve to deal with it. Things are bad for Alex and Joe because they never talked about the crash. Neve helped her start to confront it so she’d like to do the same for her. She is there if she wants to talk. Neve wants to talk about those woods. Christine (Ann Ogbomo) tells William (Nicholas Gleaves) that he is up early. They watch Alex talking to no one outside. Maria is outside when Joe drops Katie off on his bike and drives away. Daniel ridicules his daughter for ignoring his calls. He asks where she was last night until Maria interrupts to say Joseph’s.

Maria and Katie get into an argument as Katie says Neve dumped Joseph that night and it only happened once. Maria says Neve was out of the way so she stepped in. Katie accuses her of doing that with her father when her mom was out of the way. Maria reveals she has been dreaming about them pulling Neve out of the lake over and over again. She had the same dream last night, but it was Katie’s body they dragged out of the water. Maria confesses it was the best night’s sleep she has had in days. Katie cries and runs to her room. Tom Rees (Matthew McNulty) talks to Kent about going back to school and teaching since the kids need him. Tom argues with him before falling to the ground and slowly picking himself back up.

Daniel walks in on Maria as she tries to paint, but she complains that she can’t even do that. Daniel reminds her that Katie is just a kid and they did stupid things when they were kids too. Maria says she certainly didn’t sleep with her stepsister’s boyfriend though. She isn’t the only one grieving and Daniel is struggling to hold this family together. Maria can only think about Neve so she doesn’t want to be in this house anymore. DS Diana Aird (Rebecca Root) tells Christine that they’re focusing on the belt used to strangle Neve.

The buckle has a distinctive design so they’re going through social media from the party to see if they can find it. Christine doesn’t think it’ll show up on the photos that night although Diana says it is worth a shot. Alex interrupts to ask about the strange rockpiles in the woods. Diana suggests they’re old campsites. Christine says it is an old Halloween thing or Beltane. They light bonfires to communicate with Hettie whose husband owned Keaton Hall. Neve seems to recognize the name Hettie Keaton. In private, Alex tells her it is just a fairytale, but Neve says it was based on a real woman. She wonders if she just wants to be heard since she didn’t get to say what really happened to her.

Neve wants to try to contact her because she could be like her. Nicky (Oliver Huntingdon) asks Joseph whether he has a thing with Katie Sands but insists he wouldn’t care if they did. He asks Joe not to take advantage. Joseph knows he was out of order so he asks Nicky to forget what he said. Joe believes everyone thinks he is a murderer although Nicky doesn’t. Nicky just thinks people don’t know what to say. A man interrupts to ask if the bike outside belongs to one of them. They go outside and find out that the bike’s lines have been cut. Joe goes back inside to ask who did it while starting with Burns (Edward Judge).

Joe asks him to be a man and say it to his face. Burns gets up before asking what Katie Sands was like. He questions whether she was better than Neve and if he has had Maria. Burns continues until William interrupts. He calls it shameful and asks them how many times he sat with them in court and helped them sort out work. William reminds them that this club is about loyalty and having each other’s backs. He forces them to shake hands. Neve and Alex place wood around the rockpiles with the intention of setting them on fire. Alex begins joking about doing a witchy dance before they light the fire while Neve tells her to stop it.

They nearly kiss until they hear the scratching noise in the distance. It stops before Neve kneels over and moans in pain. She finds herself in the woods alone. Neve enters a house where she hears someone saying go home. She approaches the room where the voices are coming from and looks inside. Neve returns to Alex seconds later. Alex says they need to get out of there. Neve tells her she was in the reception area of a motel. It was like someone took her there because it is important. There was a Persian carpet, a chandelier in the lobby, red walls, and a bedroom with the number seven on the door. Alex believes that is Keaton Hall. Neve believes she should go there.

Maria grabs some stuff from the cooler before sitting down. Nicky asks her if she is okay. She says nothing so he sits down in front of her. Daniel gets a call from a worried Nicky about Maria being at the café. Joan (Karen Henthorn) convinces Daniel to stay with the kids while she talks to Maria. Tom goes to the community center but leaves in a hurry when he sees Michael Wyatt (William Ash) sitting nearby. Michael follows him to say he doesn’t know what he is missing because they have Jammie Dodgers in there. Tom doesn’t think this is his thing though. When Michael asks what he is going to do now, Tom admits he is thinking about getting pissed.

Michael tries to convince him to at least stay for a brew. Joan joins Maria and says people used to say they couldn’t understand what she was going through. They were right since they couldn’t understand it. Victoria was her only daughter so she was everything to her. Although the police thought she took her own life, they never found her body. As a result, Joan never got closure. She knows that Maria’s heart is broken and it’ll never be fixed or beat the way it used to. Joan tells her more about the things she’ll go through as she comes to grips with her loss because she wants her to know what is coming.

She wants her to know that she got through it thanks to Daniel and the grandkids. Joan asks her not to push them away. Neve tells Alex that the whole place felt cold and empty like she was the only one there. She notices black dust on her fingers. She tells Alex that it is dangerous because it feels angry. Neve contemplates whether she should go alone. She just wants Alex safe and they don’t know what it is capable of. Neve isn’t sure she should take Alex with her to Keaton Hall, but Alex doesn’t think she has a choice. Alex agrees to give her one hour before she comes looking.

Michael talks to Tom about drinking and still messing up. Although Tom says William gives him a hard time, Michael doesn’t think he’d be there without him. He really fell apart and started drinking heavily when Joe’s mother died. William pulled him out of a dark place. Michael knows he owes him, but he hopes he hasn’t messed Joe around too much. Joe looks at him like he isn’t enough sometimes and it kills him. Tom understands since messing up his kid is his specialty. He hasn’t moved on with Maria either. He wonders if she wanted Daniel because he is a man with money and a nice house. Michael asks whether he could make her happy with a bottle in his hand.

Joan returns home to tell Daniel that Maria will be back since she just needed some space. That isn’t good enough for Daniel who thinks he should’ve gone. He complains that he always has to stay strong while everyone else falls apart. Joan says Maria isn’t like Victoria so it isn’t going to happen again. Joe finds Alex at the bar after she orders a double vodka. He admits he doesn’t blame her for going to the police. Alex confesses she isn’t okay and was in the woods, but she doesn’t want to talk about it. She’ll only say that there is something bad in the woods. William warns her to take it easy on the alcohol although she doesn’t want a lecture.

He is just worried about her. Alex asks whether anything bad happened at Keaton Hall. William doesn’t know. He asks what she isn’t telling him and suggests they talk more. He is proud of her and wants her to know she can come to him at any time. Alex claims she is only taking an interest in local history. Maria goes into the lake where her daughter’s body was discovered. Neve goes into Keaton Hall and begins looking around. Tom looks at old pictures at home before getting angry and throwing stuff around. He gets a visit from Maria who wants him to tell her about Neve. Meanwhile, Neve slowly enters the bedroom and begins hearing the scratching noise.

She asks what they want. She collapses to the ground while it looks like she is being choked. Once it stops, she hears someone say her name behind her. William approaches her as Neve says they need to call the police because she thinks she died here. She realizes something is wrong. William stops her from leaving the room and asks her not to make this hard. When the mirror breaks nearby, both fall to the ground. Neve gets up first and flees the room.

 

The Rising Review

The fourth episode of The Rising focused primarily on dialogue and the characters trying to come to grips with the loss of Neve. As for Neve and Alex, they ventured into the woods and found a possible connection to Heaton Hall. When Neve went there alone, she was approached by William who seemed to want to kill her.

While this wasn’t one of the better episodes, it did move the story forward with the revelation at the end. A lot can happen in the next few episodes although I hope it doesn’t get too outlandish. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Rising are available on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support us on this page.